TORT
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coverage, in many cases the individual does not. A jury decides someone suffered $100,000 in harm, but the business is at fault for only 10 percent.
But bills go further than that one change.
Most importantly, the bills say a property owner is exempt from a lawsuit unless someone can prove they “affirmatively, with a degree of conscious decision-making, impelled the conduct of said third party.” A woman who sues after being attacked in a dark parking lot without security would have to prove that the business knew about the potential harm and let it happen.
They also exempt property owners from liability even if they knew about the violent nature of the third party, and doesn’t allow a plaintiff to establish that there was an atmosphere of violence at a location unless there was similar violent conduct that resulted in three felony convictions on the property within the three prior years. So a nightclub where the police are called to break up fights but people aren’t charged and convicted of felonies could be exempt, for example, if someone was hurt there later.
Ole Miss law school Professor Farish Percy, who teaches tort law, said the bill could make it nearly impossible to prove a property owner bears any responsibility for any injury caused by a third party. That’s unlike current law, which would say a property owner is responsible if they didn’t take reasonable precautions.
“I think this is much greater protection,” Percy said Thursday.